RRND Email Full Text (Scheduled)

  • North Korea: Kim unveils 5,000-ton destroyer, touting nuclear capabilities

    Source: France 24 [French state media]

    “North Korea has commissioned a 5,000-ton destroyer that leader Kim Jong Un touts as a symbol of the country’s growing naval and nuclear capabilities, state media reported on Wednesday, as Pyongyang seeks to expand its ability to project military power at sea. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim told a commissioning ceremony on Tuesday at the western port of Nampo that warships such as the Choe Hyon show that the nuclear armament of his navy is progressing as planned. … After years of spurring ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more towards naval capabilities, including the ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. Naval capabilities were also a key focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at February’s Workers’ Party congress, which included calls for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of underwater launches.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20260624-kim-jong-un-unveils-5-000-ton-destroyer-touting-nuclear-capabilities

  • Trump abruptly cancels signing of housing bill ahead of GOP Senate visit

    Source: SFGate

    “President Donald Trump ratcheted up tensions with Senate Republicans on Wednesday by abruptly canceling his signing of a bipartisan measure to make housing more affordable. Republicans had hoped to show voters they care about affordability ahead of the November elections. But the president blindsided them by insisting that Congress first pass a bill imposing federal rules on state-run elections. Trump had already planned to lunch Wednesday with GOP senators increasingly frustrated by his diversions from the party’s agenda and his unclear Iran war strategy. Trump also has a face-to-face Wednesday with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, two weeks ahead of the annual summit of the military alliance, as the Pentagon reviews the U.S. military footprint in Europe.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/the-latest-trump-will-head-to-capitol-to-speak-22318468.php

  • SC: Wilson wins GOP gubernatorial primary

    Source: NBC News

    “State Attorney General Alan Wilson has won the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina, NBC News projected Tuesday, after a closely watched runoff that featured President Donald Trump’s unusual double endorsement of two candidates. Wilson is now heavily favored heading into the general election in South Carolina’s first open governor’s race since 2010. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster was term-limited and could not seek re-election. Democratic candidate Jermaine Johnson won his primary this month.” (06/23/26)

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/south-carolina-governor-runoff-election-winner-wilson-rcna351122

  • France confirms first Ebola case

    Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

    “France has confirmed its first case of Ebola – a doctor who had returned from a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The doctor was ‘immediately admitted to a specialised facility’ and is in a stable condition, the French health ministry said on Wednesday. DR Congo announced an Ebola outbreak last month, but experts believe the virus had been circulating for weeks previously. More than 260 people are confirmed to have died from the virus in the central African country, while 1,000 people have been infected. This is the first Ebola case to have been confirmed in Europe, although an American doctor who tested positive in DR Congo was treated at a German hospital last month. DR Congo’s neighbour, Uganda, has also confirmed Ebola cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) says 20 people are known to have been infected there and two deaths have been confirmed.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9gzr9rdjlo

  • Peru: Fujimori Secures Unbeatable Lead in Presidential Election

    Source: US News & World Report

    “Conservative ⁠Keiko Fujimori gained an insurmountable ⁠lead in Peru’s presidential runoff late on Tuesday, setting her ​on track to assume the presidency. Fujimori, a four-time presidential hopeful and the daughter of former ‌President Alberto Fujimori, now has 50.11% ‌of the votes, putting her ahead of leftist rival Roberto Sanchez by 43,386 ⁠votes. There ⁠remain only 40,213 potential votes to be counted, according to data ​from Peru’s ONPE electoral authority. The electoral authority has yet to officially declare a winner and plans to do so in mid-July. Fujimori’s expected victory deepens Latin America’s rightward shift, following outsider Abelardo De ​La Espriella’s election in Colombia on Sunday. Voters concerned about crime have flocked ⁠to hardline ⁠candidates. Earlier on Tuesday, Sanchez ⁠alleged that ‘fraud ​was underway,’ without providing evidence, and said he would refuse to recognize the results ​of the election, raising ⁠the prospect of a prolonged political crisis in Peru.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-06-24/right-wing-fujimori-secures-unbeatable-lead-in-peru-presidential-election


  • SCOTUS Unanimously Ruled That the Second Amendment Trumps Anti-Drug Sentiment

    Source: Reason
    by Jacob Sullum

    “The Supreme Court has a history of facilitating the war on drugs by whittling away at civil liberties, to the point that critics have long perceived a ‘drug exception’ to the Bill of Rights. But last week, when the justices unanimously upheld the gun rights of cannabis consumers, they made it clear that there is no drug exception to the Second Amendment.” (06/24/26)

    https://reason.com/2026/06/24/scotus-unanimously-ruled-that-the-second-amendment-trumps-anti-drug-sentiment/

  • Is Warsh His Own Man?

    Source: The American Conservative
    by David Brady

    “The Fed chair’s first meeting was largely uneventful but laid the groundwork of challenges for his tenure.” (06/24/26)

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/is-warsh-his-own-man/

  • Industrial Policies: Even Modest Intervention Creates Market Distortions

    Source: Cato Institute
    by Jeffrey Miron

    “Industrial policy — government efforts to favor certain sectors, technologies, or firms — has a long history. Far from a fringe idea, politicians across the spectrum have promoted such policies for centuries. But the results are far more problematic than its current popularity suggests.” (06/23/26)

    https://www.cato.org/blog/industrial-policies

  • How Steve Hilton Can Become California’s Next Governor

    Source: Town Hall
    by Edward Ring

    “A very successful businessman (and a major contributor to Democratic Party candidates and causes) once explained to me why he talked, acted, and thought like a Republican but never considered supporting any Republican candidate, ever. ‘We’ve already got the Republicans’, he told me. This is the transactional essence behind corporate support for Democrats in California, the one-party state. Republicans have no political power, and whenever the Democrats in the state legislature are surprisingly split on a matter of concern to business interests, the handful of Republican politicians will invariably cast pro-business votes. This has been going on for a long time. Democrats have controlled both houses of the state legislature since 1997 and the governorship since 2011. A signature moment came in 2010 when Jerry Brown defeated the hapless billionaire Republican Meg Whitman to begin his second two-term stint as governor.” (06/24/26)

    https://amgreatness.com/2026/06/24/how-steve-hilton-can-become-californias-next-governor/

  • Mindless Middleness Was Keir Starmer’s Undoing

    Source: The UnPopulist
    by Berny Belvedere

    “Rather than govern on the strength of his supermajority in Parliament, Starmer governed as though he had something to fear, spending his majority appeasing not the Conservatives he had beaten but a Reform he chased rightward as it climbed. Starmer had room to govern boldly. Instead, he governed in a crouch. … The bet was that the right’s goods in gentler packaging would deny the right its market. It failed twice over. The voters he hoped to hold by sounding tougher did not stay; they went to the people who meant it. The voters he might have inspired got nothing to be inspired by. He alienated the left without satisfying the right.” (06/23/26)

    https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/mindless-middleness-was-keir-starmers